Robert B. Parker

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Spenser Books
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The most popular modern detective series. Parker seems to have skipped a generation in his influences; Spenser is drawn not so much from Ross Macdonald and other detectives of the late 50s and 60s as from Raymond Chandler's Marlowe. Spenser even sports a poet's name. He's a walking contradiction: ex-boxer, gourmet cook, reader of poetry, kicker of ass. Parker also introduced a staple of later private eyes: the dirty-deed-doing sidekick, Hawk, memorably portrayed by Avery Brooks in the television series (my favorite line: "Ma'am, I am carrying a large, loaded, concealed weapon.").

Spenser's first six books or so did to the quiet, introspective P.I. novels of the early 70s what Jaws and Star Wars did to quiet, introspective early 70s movies: blew the doors off with a bigger, bolder canvas, and spawned many imitations. Parker also helped the genre shed its trenchcoat-and-fedora fixation and updated it by writing about contemporary people and issues. The boom in private eye writing in the 80s can be traced directly to Parker and Spenser, and while the series isn't as fresh as when it first appeared, but the older books have aged well, especially the classic God Save The Child.